[Tele-medicine consultation as a tool to improve the demand for consultation in Primary Care]

Currently, there is a strong healthcare pressure on resources in Primary Care clinics. This significantly compromises the accessibility and the time dedicated to the patient. This paper analyses the implementation of a tele-medicine service using telephone and e-mail consultations.

The telephone and e-mail consultations carried out during one year were reviewed retrospectively. The patient profile, the type of consultation carried out, the need for a face-to-face visit, and the receipt of attached documentation were analysed.

A total of 884 distance consultations were received in a 12month period. The distance consultation accounted for 13.56% of consultations on demand. The mean age of the patient was 54 (SD: 17) years old. The large majority (87.7%) of the consultations were made by the patients and the rest by relatives or caregivers. The time spent per patient in the face-to-face consultation was 10.24minutes and the waiting list was less than 48hours on 97% of the days of the year. The patient had to go in person on 24 (2.71%) occasions.

Distance consultation is a useful resource for improving accessibility, as well as leading to more physical consultation time. It has also demonstrated that it is capable of solving problems of different kinds and in different age groups.